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Smuggling across the Suriname/Guyana border…a serious concern for local businesses

Mar 14, 2010 News

Members of the business community are pleased with the government’s response to the Surinamese suggestion of ‘legalising the back track’ route. For years the cross border route has been used as a pipeline for smuggling large amounts of contraband across the border.
That act has had a destabilising effect on taxed imports and products in the country. Aside from drug trafficking there are other items being smuggled across the borders. The crossing from Suriname to Guyana facilitates this movement of goods particularly well.
Recently, there was the discovery of cars being smuggled across the border. Some had fake registrations that let the owners get away without paying the necessary import taxes. These owners subsequently resell the vehicles to unsuspecting consumers.
In the same vein, goods such as clothing and electronic items are brought across the Corentyne in luggage or unscheduled and unmonitored crossings by private vessels. No taxes or import duties are paid on the contraband and eventually they make it to the stores in the area or even down to the capital where they are sold at a cost that is a significant reduction from what other retailers are offering due to taxes and duties already paid on imported goods and merchandise obtained through legal channels.
There are indications that one major retail outlet in Berbice had to close its doors as a result of being unable to compete with the prices for electronic items that they carried as compared to those that were smuggled across the border.
Another issue is that a lot of the items crossing the borders do not meet the labeling specifications for public purchase and consumption. By law, products sold for human use or consumption must be labeled in English, regardless of origin.
The products may be labeled in another language but a translation in English must be on the packaging as well, however, there are many occasions when consumers can walk into markets, stores and supermarkets and purchase an item that may be labeled in anything from Cyrillic to Arabic – a serious health risk since a product may contain allergens that may affect certain persons adversely, perhaps even resulting in death if ingested.
These are the very reasons that the labeling specifications are in place.
However, the fact that there are people who cannot afford to buy the expensive version of these items labeled in English when there is a cheaper alternative at hand creates a demand and the smugglers provide the corresponding supply.

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